The True Imitation of Death Itself
by Misa The Lolicon Lolita
Summary: [A friend witnessing a friends suicide] They never had seen the taller, quiet teen taking painful poses, his fingernails sliding across his skin, imitating a razor blade, or his hand grabbing at his chest where his heart was, as if to rip it out...


**The True Imitation of Death Itself**

Kiba had been the first to see him... He had just thought that he was being stupid or something, despite how insane that sounded. Shino was never stupid. He had always been one of the most intelligent people alive. Close to Shikamaru, only far less lazy. But, that didn't mean he could avoid pain. It wasn't a kunai. It was a feeling that snaked into everyone's minds and grabbed your heart and mind so hard, they threatened to just give up.

Kiba just assumed that was what had happened with him...

Shino always seemed so strong on the outside, seeming to never let such strong pain get to him. So, the others just thought that he somehow had a way of keeping it all out. Of truely not caring. He always seemed to be perfectly find, no one actually seeing any of his expressions under his sunglasses and high collar. Even less so, when he got the hooded jacket to go over the large collar as well.

Oh, how wrong they were...

Sure, Kiba had known that the taller teen had been suicidal. Everyone else brushed it away, not wanting to get involved or too ignorant to someone else's pain to see past their own petty troubles... But then again, they couldn't smell the blood that clung to his skin and clothes constantly. They couldn't see the scars during sparring practice, revealed by the thick jacket that could only cover so much...

They never had seen the taller, quiet teen taking painful poses, his fingernails sliding across his skin, imitating a razor blade, or his hand grabbing at his chest where his heart was, as if to rip it out...

Sure, this one had been odd, his fingers bent into a shape similar to that of a gun, pointer finger and thumb extended as all his other fingers tucked into his palms. Kiba had just assumed that he was envisioning his own self-caused death. His own suicide...

Kiba regretted that he never tried to help his teammate, who was obviously suffering. Had he really been stupid enough to believe that just simple sparring could keep the pain of loneliness away? Shino didn't even have any close friends. Only people who knew his name and said hi on occasion...

Kiba had just gotten used to the displays of anger and depression, the bleeding hands from overused attacks, the bleeding wrists, effects from underused attention...

Maybe Kiba never really thought that loneliness could really hurt someone like that. He had never really been truly alone. He had always had his entire, large family, while Shino only had his father, his mother having died during birth... his close friends, which the bug-nin didn't even have. Only people he knew better than the blank-faced strangers who walked down city streets... Kiba even had his newly found girlfriend, Hinata, who had finally been asked out by Kiba after he had gained the courage...

Kiba really had no idea that Shino had been watching over them both and had fallen in love with the shy girl before Kiba had even laid eyes on her... He would never understand the level of betrayal Shino had felt when the two he had looked after, friend and love, had fallen in love with each other, leaving him with no one he held closer...

But, Kiba would never be able to understand that. But, he did understand that something was wrong, after finding Shino in the large clearing that was their training ground, hand held to his head...

Kiba had immediately sensed that something had been wrong with the lonely bug-ninja when he had seen him in the open clearing, jacket and even sunglasses gone. His liquid-paper white skin had been revealed, along with blood-red eyes from the lack of pigment in his skin and eyes. It was a common trait for the Aburame's and often forced them to wear large jackets to protect them from the sunlight. Only, Shino's jacket had provided as more than a shield from the sun...

Kiba had begun to slowly walk over from the clearing far away, trying to think of Shino's intentions. He watched the gun-imitating hand that Shino held to his own temple, wondering if he was concealing a weapon or anything of the sort...

So, he slowly got closer, blinking at the blue light slowly forming in Shino's fingertip, which pointed directly at his temple. He quickly understood what that light was and began to run, trying to get to his teammate as quickly as he could.

It was only a moment later that the pale thumb of his teammate, without any hesitation, flicked down, sending the small sphere of chakra through his own skull and out the other side. His body convulsed, bits of skin, shards of skull and a spray of blood and brain matter following the exact path of the bit of chakra.

Kiba froze in his tracks, watching with wide eyes as his closest teammate fell to the ground, limply on his side, forever gone from the loneliness that no one would ever understand...


End file.
